It is well known that perishable foods stored at reduced pressure maintain their freshness longer. Food articles, such as tea, fruit, nuts, preserves, etc. may be vacuum sealed in order to maintain freshness over extended periods of time. In general, vacuum packed foods will begin to loose their freshness the moment the vacuum seal provided during original packaging is lost.
Vacuum sealed containers are generally well known. Typical vacuum sealed vessels may include containers for food products, such as: jelly, pickles, condiments, beverages, baby food, and the like. In some vacuum sealed containers, the lid may be at least partially held against the containment volume by the reduced pressure of the vacuum seal itself. Releasing the vacuum seal will generally allow for removal of the lid closure.
In other vacuum sealed containers, the lid may also be adapted for threaded engagement with the container, such that removal of the lid may involve both releasing the vacuum seal and unscrewing the lid. Often, the lids of vacuum sealed containers may be formed with a slight concave depression near the center of the lid, indicating that the vacuum seal has not been compromised. After the vacuum seal has been released, the depression may be convex or domed and/or flexible to manual pressure and/or emitting a slight oil can noise with manual pressure, indicating that the vacuum seal has been broken. A concave, domed or flexible depression may also indicate that even if the lid has not been removed from the container, the vacuum seal has been compromised. Once the vacuum seal has been released or compromised, the contents of the container will typically have a more limited shelf life.
When the lid closure is retained by a vacuum seal alone, a common tool for releasing the seal is one that is adapted to pry the edge of the lid away from the container; however, this may cause permanent damage of the lid, such that it may be difficult to reuse the lid closure to provide a subsequent good seal. If the lid closure is also adapted for threaded engagement with the container, conventional procedures for loosening the lid may involve, for example, tapping the jar or bottle on a surface, hitting a corner of the lid with a utensil, or running hot water over the lid closure to expand the lid material away from the containment vessel material. Such procedures may crack the container or introduce water or glass chips into the product, which may be difficult to remove.
In order to assure the quality and shelf life of stored food contents, the vacuum seal must generally be impermeable to fluids and gases. Accordingly, releasing the vacuum seal to open the container may be difficult to accomplish by manual manipulation alone. Many of the food articles stored in vacuum sealed containers, such as condiments and sauces, are stored with screw lids. It can be difficult for people to open and reseal screw lids, especially people who are physically disabled, elderly, suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, tennis elbow, sprains, and/or the like and persons with weakness in their hands or arms.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a mechanism for easily releasing the vacuum seal of jars, bottles and similar containers which avoids prior difficulties and makes opening and re-establishing a vacuum seal quick, easy and safe.